The Explosion Inside Rico's Head
by Zyar
Summary: After an explosion caused by Rico gets a bit out of hand, Skipper forbids him to make more explosions until he learns some self-control. When his captain confiscates all his explosives, Rico will have to find another way to create a good explosion, even if that endangers someone. Could his obsession be going too far?
1. Destruction

**Kaboom: The Explosion Inside Rico's Head**

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><p><em>Fire. Fear. Destruction. Chaos. BOOM!<em>

It was perfect. It was beautiful. The kind of beauty that only an explosion like the one he had just caused could reach. There were metal parts flying through the air, falling from the sky like a torrential rain. And the rain didn't stop. A thick and heavy layer of smoke covered the atmosphere, and the penguin breathed it in, grateful for the spectacle this explosion offered him.

_Rico. Rico._

The spell was interrupted by a yell that the penguin found annoying.

"Rico!" He finally looked away from the wonderful disaster and dropped his eyes on the wrathful face of his commanding officer. He hated him sometimes; he didn't let him enjoy his greatest passion. He only held him back. "Do you realize what you have just done?"

Once again he looked to the explosion he had caused. Only small scorched parts remained of what once had been a pink and flowered vehicle. He remembered perfectly the moment. The idea had seemed so good at the time. No. Somewhere inside him -where he still kept a sliver of reason- he knew it wasn't a good idea. Much less a safe one. But the promise of how fun and exciting it would be always beat all of that.

"You just blew up our car, soldier!"

Rico smiled slightly and his eyes adopted a dreamy look.

Yes, he remembered it quite well. The exhaust pipe had been smoking more than usual. Maybe this was what had activated his natural instinct to explosions. In different circumstances, he never would have thought about causing an explosion that would put his team at risk. But this time he had barely given it a thought when he hacked up a dynamite stick and jammed it inside the exhaust pipe. When they started it, the car had gone _kaboom_.

It was a miracle they were still alive. More than that: they were unharmed.

Rico had caused probably one of the best explosions in his whole life but still... there was something that didn't feel quite alright. The words of his leader quickly pushed that feeling aside.

"Don't get distracted while I'm yelling at you! And take that smile off your beak!"

Rico grunted quietly. Behind him, Kowalski and Private were still hugging each other. He recalled their faces when the explosion had occurred. They were so funny! Still, Rico didn't quite understand why they were so terrified of explosions. Everyone should love them.

But he didn't care that much. One of the things he loved about explosions was the fear they evoked to everyone in general. It was something he was immune to.

While he thought about these things, Skipper's patience ran out and he slapped him. Hard. Rico spat on the ground before returning his face to the position it was before. The shorter penguin's eyes were glazed over with red hot fury.

"Skipper," interrupted one of his teammates behind him: Kowalski. He walked into his field of view. "I'm afraid Rico has reached his _turning point_ with his love for explosions."

Rico frowned profusely. He didn't like the scientist putting labels over his passion for explosions. It was something that his brain -no matter how big and overdeveloped it was- wasn't able to understand. It didn't matter if it was something Kowalski thought he could do.

"Explain yourself, soldier," Skipper ordered immediately.

"I'm saying that we haven't been doing a good job in keeping Rico's destructive impulses under control. We've given him too much freedom in the way he uses his explosions in almost every situation and this has led to him causing them recklessly and without the least amount of consideration towards those around him. Even if it's us."

"Wait a minute," said Private, but they paid him no mind.

"Are you suggesting what I think you are?" Skipper asked without too much confidence.

Rico directed his gaze from Skipper to Kowalski with distrust.

"Zero dynamite. Zero bombs. Zero explosions. Zero _kaboom_. It's just what Rico needs."

No! They were not going to take away his love for explosions. They weren't going to forbid him the explosions. He took a step forward, ready to give the scientist a piece of his mind about the plan he had proposed when Skipper got in the middle and placed a flipper on his chest to stop him.

"You heard that, Rico? No explosions for you until you learn some self-control. And that's an order, soldier."

That same afternoon, Skipper and the team stripped Rico of every explosive he possessed. They turned the HQ into dynamite, bomb, and grenade free place. Even Rico's insides were completely empty from these. The penguin could only watch as his teammates took every explosive away from him. It required a great amount of will to not lunge against Skipper, snatch the bombs he was carrying, and detonate them right then and there. At the end, he had managed to suppress the persistent voices in his head that lured him to do something crazy that would produce a lot of harm. But, for how long?

"Show me you can control yourself and live without explosions for a week, buddy. And then we'll give you all this back."

"_A week?!_" The penguin exclaimed in shock. It was ridiculous! More than that: it was dangerous. And Rico was starting to fear what would happen once he wasn't able to control himself any longer. He looked at Skipper, then Kowalski and lastly Private. He didn't want any of his friends to get hurt due to the little self-control he had. But he knew that something bad was bound to happen. And very soon.

_Do it now. Blow them up. Skipper is not that smart. I bet he hid the explosives in the most obvious place you can imagine._

He shook his head from side to side. Trying to push that sinister voice to the depths of his mind. He wouldn't listen to it. He had managed to ignore it for years; that voice that urged him to cause harm using his love for explosions as a conduit; and he wasn't going to start heeding it now.

_You've never been without explosives for a week._

Rico knew it. It had only been a few minutes since Skipper took the last explosive and all he could think about was blowing something up.

He told himself that he'd find a way to keep control. He didn't only love explosives. He also loved destruction, and he didn't need an explosion to pull something apart.

Later that day, he shattered King Julien's throne using a single wooden mallet. He enjoyed the lemur's reaction and his captain didn't seem bothered with what he did. Quite the contrary; he had never seen him so happy. But it was still not enough to keep his destructive impulses at ease.

The parts of the throne were reduced to shatters, but it didn't compare with seeing them fly through the air and fall covered in fire.

That night, he reflected on what the voice inside his head had said. It was true: he did know where had Skipper hidden the explosives. Just a small, little, tiny explosion.

_Why not better, a BIG one?_

No! A small one would be enough.

When his teammates went to sleep, he left the headquarters and headed to the zoo storage. The place where they usually parked their car -which was nothing more than a bunch of rubble in the garbage now thanks to him -was now occupied with a ton of the confiscated explosives. There were some missing, but that was only because of a lack of space. But these would be enough.

He hacked up a match, strangely enough already lit up despite having been inside his stomach. The flame was spreading quickly through the wood. He observed it for a while, reconsidering what he was about to do. He moved his gaze from the flame to the pile of dynamite sticks. This was going to be a big one. He slowly brought his trembling flipper closer to the fuse of one of the sticks.

"Rico!"

Fortunately, Skipper was there to stop him. The captain knew his weapon expert well, and he knew words wouldn't be enough to stop him. He acted quickly and took his soldier's flipper, the one that held the lit match. He blew and the flame extinguished, he then twisted the penguin's flipper until Rico let out a whimper and dropped the match.

There hadn't been much damage. Rico sighed internally and looked at his captain with grateful eyes. Skipper was always there to prevent him from doing something evil, to help him to be good. The leader put his flipper around his unstable soldier's shoulders and guided him back to the HQ. Rico only looked over his shoulder to the pile of explosives they were leaving behind.

"I know this is hard for you, Rico," Skipper said with a soft voice. "I blame myself partially for leaving the explosives in such an obvious place. I'll move them so you don't have that temptation so close to you."

_NOO!_

Rico's eyes opened with horror. He didn't think he'd be able to control himself if he didn't know the explosives were _there_. Waiting for him. What if now, Skipper decided to get rid of them... forever?

"Remember, Rico: just one week. Show me you can stand a week without explosives."

The truth was that he couldn't. Now he knew it for sure. _He_ was a walking bomb, whose timer had gotten stuck years ago, but since this morning it had started over in its countdown. The only difference is that when he explodes, nobody knows what will happen.

Only one thing was definite. There would be destruction.

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><p><strong>This is my first fanfiction in english. As you could probably tell, english isn't my native language but I've had Skipper917 as my beta-reader to help me with any grammar mistakes I could have, so I really thank her for that! :) She's probably the reason this story is somewhat understandable I hope!<strong>

**Anyway this story is going to be heavily centered on Rico but of course Skipper, Kowalski and Private are going to have roles in it too. In fact, we'll see more about them in upcoming chapters! Hope you've liked the story so far!**

**And please Read&Review!**


	2. Fire

It had been a whole day without explosions. Skipper had kept his word and moved all the explosives to a different location that not even the sinister voice inside Rico's head knew.

What was Skipper trying to prove with this? That he could force him to do anything he wanted just because he was his commanding officer? Skipper was just going to torture him during the course of the next week and then he could go back to play with his beloved explosives while his leader blindly believed that he had made some progress. Gosh, if only he could endure this week.

It had caught his attention that the voice had been showing up more and more frequently for some time now. He would usually silence it by recurring to his willpower. Yes; even if no one believed it, Rico had willpower. If he didn't, the team would have been gone a long time ago. Rico loved this team more than any explosive in the world. He loved his friends.

But when the voice was just too insistent -which fortunately wasn't that often-, he would silence it by granting it a little of what it asked. Blowing up something small was enough. Nobody got hurt and Rico stopped hearing that annoying voice.

This time he couldn't do that.

He was sitting at the table, holding his head between his flippers and rocking his body back and forth as if he was trapped between the four white walls of an asylum. Skipper and Private had decided to leave him alone through all this. They both probably knew how dangerous could Rico be. Rico wondered sometimes if his own teammates feared him. He wondered sometimes if he was right to love them more than his explosives.

The sinister voice's answer always was: no.

Rico spent long hours at the table or on his bunk, with his head buried in his flippers and thinking about bombs. Always thinking of a way to replace his love for explosions with something else.

He found that something else until the third day.

The lab's door came flying suddenly from its hinges, Private was able to dodge it by mere centimeters. What happened next was what interested Rico. _An explosion_. Inside Kowalski's lab, of course. The scientist was propelled from inside the room by the shock wave. Smoke and even a little of fire along with him.

Rico stood up immediately while Skipper and Private cleared the smoke with their flippers and went to check on the other penguin.

"Fish and chips, Kowalski! What the hell happened?" Skipper asked, still flapping his flipper in front of his face.

The scientist coughed up weakly and got up from the place the explosion had thrown him.

"I'm trying to invent a mega energy photo generator." After saying this, he pulled out a clipboard from behind his back. "But seems I forgot to carry the two."

"What do we need a mega energy photo generator for?" Private asked while arching a brow skeptically.

"That's exactly what Manfredi and Johnson said before... well, you know," Skipper replied shaking his head from side to side with sadness. Private rubbed the back of his head.

Without paying them attention, Rico walked straight to Kowalski, who was redoing an equation. His teammate's sudden presence besides him surprised him and he looked up from his clipboard to Rico's anxious face.

"What?" he asked raising an eyebrow. "Do I have something on my beak?"

Rico shook his head. If he wanted to make his request, he had to do it now.

"_Help?_"

The ends of Kowalski's beak curved upward almost immediately, delighted at the prospect of having some help in his lab. When had been the last time that had happened? He had performed as a loner when he worked in one of his projects, which, normally, was something he liked: his friends respecting his working space. But maybe in this occasion he could actually use some help.

"Well... of course you can help me!" The penguin replied with a big smile and throwing his flipper in the air with enthusiasm. "Can't he, Skipper?"

Skipper only shrugged.

"Sure," the leader allowed with a slight smile. "I'm glad Rico's focusing his talents in something more positive."

"Me too," Private agreed in his sweet voice.

Rico felt like doing a dance of joy, but he just smiled back. Nobody had guessed his true intentions behind his request: when working with Kowalski, he'd get to enjoy a hundred of explosions a day.

_Checkmate, Skipper._

It didn't take long for Rico to realize the inconvenience of his plan. He had spent an hour in Kowalski's lab and there had not been a single explosion yet. He had been handing some tools to the scientist that was working on a strange-looking machine, presumably the mega energy photo generator.

Rico heaved a sigh while Kowalski used a blowtorch with ease on the machine. At least he could be near fire in here. But it was still not enough.

The taller penguin finally left the blowtorch on top of one of the tables and moved the goggles he was wearing to his forehead. He cleaned some soot that had dirtied his feathers and turned to the weapon expert.

"Time for a break, Rico," he announced. Rico put on his puppy eyes upon knowing they were leaving the lab and he had not witnessed a single explosion.

"_Aww,_" the penguin of the Mohawk complained. Kowalski tilted his head to one side, surprised.

"Did you enjoy helping me in the lab?"

Rico kept quiet for a few seconds, looking at the floor.

"_Kaboom?_" he asked sadly.

It was until then that Kowalski realized what had Rico wanted all this time. He felt a sting of disappointment in his chest and he scowled at his teammate.

"Hey, not all my inventions blow up!" He said defensively. "Besides, you know Skipper forbade you any kind of explosions for a week."

"_Not fair!_" Rico protested.

"You remember that time he forbade me from making more inventions? That's discipline, and it's something you need." Kowalski didn't see the use in mentioning that that time he had disobeyed Skipper's orders and invented an invisibility ray behind his back.

Rico growled and crossed his flippers. Kowalski finally heaved a sigh and gave up. Not saying a word, he walked to a closet and pulled out a bottle of bubbly soda. He then threw an alka-seltzer tablet and some muriatic acid in, he closed the bottle again and shook it violently with all his might and gave it to Rico.

"Here," he simply said. "Enjoy."

The pyromaniac's face lit up and he set the bottle down on the ground while Kowalski moved away to avoid being victim of the small explosion that was about to take place. Rico then removed the cap and ran to Kowalski.

The explosion that happened was tiny compared to all the explosions Rico had caused during his life. The cap shoot off, hitting the roof, it wasn't long before the liquid inside the bottle followed it, the soda was poured all over the lab, much to Kowalski's annoyance, and, lastly, the plastic that constituted the bottle exploded into pieces.

"_Yeaaah!_" Rico shouted with excitement, clapping in the air and letting out a bunch of incomprehensible screams. "_WOOO!_"

"Yeah, yeah. Not a word about this to Skipper, understood?"

Rico nodded his head vigorously.

"_Thanks,_" he muttered. Kowalski smiled.

"Think nothing of it. I know how you're feeling; that time without inventions was the worst of my life, at least for me. Now, clean this up and let's go have some lunch."

Rico nodded again and Kowalski exited the lab, closing the door behind him and leaving the lover of explosions alone to clean up his mess. It didn't take long for Rico's attention to drift from the soda spilled on the walls and he suddenly found himself staring at the machine he had been working on with Kowalski. Almost unconsciously, he extended his flipper and opened the little door that concealed the control panel. He could see inside cables of many colors sparking, mechanic parts -some of which he didn't recognize-, and many caution symbols: a drawing of a flame, which commonly meant: flammable. A cross. A skull. A yellow triangle with an exclamation mark (!) inside. He imagined what kind of explosion all this could cause.

Not giving it a second thought, he started to move cables from one place to another. He didn't know what he was doing, but the voice in his head did. It guided him masterfully throughout the entire operation, giving him clear instructions about what he had to unplug and which pieces he had to turn or disassemble.

_Look inside the closet the soda bottle was in._

Rico quickly obeyed the voice's orders. He stopped manipulating the inside of the machine and went to the closet. There was a lot of stuff in there, but what caught his attention was the time-bomb the smart penguin kept in there. Kowalski must have built it. He took it and set the timer. In no time, the bomb began ticking away the seconds until detonation. The penguin began moving quicker from then. He went back to the machine and hid the bomb inside, in a place where it wasn't visible to the naked eye.

A fleeting thought crossed his mind like a breeze: what if Kowalski got hurt? He knew an explosion like this wouldn't be harmless, and in such a reduced space like this lab, the danger increased... but the sinister voice didn't care... and neither did he.

It was Skipper's fault for separating him from his beloved explosives. Now, thanks to that, an innocent penguin would have to pay the consequences.

_Not so innocent. Remember he was the one who gave Skipper the idea of leaving you without explosions for a week. Think about it._

He frowned profusely and he finished planting the bomb without any feeling of remorse. He closed the control panel's little door after that and left the lab.

A whole hour passed by during lunch. Rico was certain of it, he was worried about the time now more than ever. The four penguins had lunch together at the table. Skipper asked Kowalski and Rico what had they been up to in the lab. Kowalski quickly started telling him about the progress he had made in the mega energy photo generator; Skipper eventually stopped paying him attention and entertained himself by watching the newspaper's images. Kowalski didn't seem to care at all! The penguin kept talking and talking nonstop. Was he going to keep talking for hours? Rico felt a wave of relief run through his body when the scientist finally stood up and announced he was going to keep working in his lab.

"That mega energy photo generator is not going to build itself," he pointed out proudly. He turned to look briefly at Rico. "You wanna help me, Rico?"

The insane soldier watched his food with no much appetite; he didn't want to look Kowalski in the eye.

"_Nah,_" he replied dryly. Kowalski shook his head with disappointment and went into his lab. Rico watched the door while it closed and suppressed a hurt sigh. Right now he only had one thing in mind: he had to get everyone out of the HQ as soon as possible. "_Snow cones!_"

Private averted his gaze from his plate of food at the mention of his favorite frozen dessert. His eyes light up with yearning.

"Can we go, Skippah?" Private started begging, pulling at his leader's flipper.

"Alright, let's go," Skipper accepted quickly. He left the newspaper on the table and let the private pull him to the top of the HQ. Rico stayed behind for a few minutes. When no one was looking, he hacked up a steel rod and secured it in front of the lab's door; that way no one who'd be inside could get out.

Upon entering his lab, Kowalski had soon entertained himself doing some numbers on his clipboard. He was particularly happy today.

There was a reason nothing had blown up in his lab that day -except for the little incident a few hours ago-; he had made sure to take extra measures to prevent any explosion. He had done it for two different reasons. 1) Skipper had forbidden any kind of explosions in the HQ and 2) He wanted Skipper to notice this. The mega energy photo generator was going to make him really happy, but knowing nothing had blown up in the lab recently was going to make him proud of the scientist.

Kowalski was tired of being the black sheep of the team.

Nevertheless, while he worked, he noticed an incessant sound that hadn't been there when he went out for lunch. A tick. He knew perfectly that click: it was a watch. He paid it no mind and decided to keep working on the machine. He opened the control panel and was surprised to see some pieces out of place. What he noticed then was that there was an extra piece, although he couldn't see what it was from the angle he was looking at it.

"Hmm."

Kowalski only observed for a while with a frown in confusion on his feathered face, and he reached his flipper inside the machine to try and take out the object that was ticking.

Skipper, Rico and Private were walking back from the snow cone stand, each of them licking their own rainbow colored snow cone, but Rico did so with less enthusiasm than his teammates. Private was carrying a second snow cone in one of his flippers: for Kowalski.

Kowalski's face went pale when he saw what he had pulled out from the inside of the photo generator. He had been correct at guessing the click from before was a watch; more precisely, a stopwatch... And this stopwatch was tied up to a bomb, measuring time until its detonation. His breath quickened and he opened his eyes with horror. He dropped the bomb again in the machine and ran to the door.

He pushed it with all his strength but it didn't budge. It was stuck.

"Help! Help!"

Nobody would answer his call for help. Everybody was out, luckily safe from the range of the explosion... But Kowalski wasn't. He tried pushing the door harder, he was desperate and he could swear he heard the click louder and louder with every millisecond that passed.

He turned to the photo generator, where the bomb was clicking away, seconds from blowing everything up. He had only one option left: deactivate the bomb. He finally separated from the door and ran again to the machine. It was a futile attempt. He would have required of 6.17 seconds to deactivate the bomb and he only had three.

Even before he got to the photo generator, the stopwatch had already reached zero. The bomb exploded.

Rico had been doing the math since he had set in motion the bomb's stopwatch. The detonation should be occurring in less than a second now.

There wasn't even enough time for Kowalski to take a step back and the strength of the explosion was devastating. It sent him flying to the furthest wall of the lab, where fire engulfed him as if he was inside an oven. Thousands of parts from all the machines he had ever built in his life -bolts, rods, metals, iron bars- came flying at him, some hitting him and some of them even embedding themselves in his skin and piercing through his body. He tried to scream, but he knew that no sound would come out of his burning throat. If he was lucky, if he kept his beak shut, the fire wouldn't spread to the inside of his body and burn his organs. It was his last hope of survival. It was useless to ask for help at this point, the thought didn't even cross his mind in the middle of his agony; but the pain was just too much to not scream.

Even from the spot they were standing, the rest of the team could see the explosion. The sound assaulted their ears like a gunshot through the night. Shortly thereafter they could admire the horrific spectacle with their own eyes. The explosion rose in the sky like a giant mushroom made of smoke and fire, throwing rubble in every direction.

Private dropped the snow cones he was holding, that fell to the ground like a pair of meatballs, and he stared, beak hanging at the sight of the explosion. The food bowl that once hid the entrance to their secret HQ was propelled to Skipper's feet, where it bounced and rolled a couple of feet before stopping short with a clank. It had some parts missing and smoke rose from its surface. Skipper shuddered, seeing the state at which the bowl had been left, and a single concern appeared in his mind.

"KOWALSKI!"

He and Private slid as fast as possible towards the HQ even before the explosion had ended.

And Rico? Rico was paralyzed with terror. The explosion had been a lot larger than he had anticipated and, strangely enough, he couldn't remember ever feeling so satisfied before. In less than ten seconds he was sliding towards the explosion. He had witnessed how others experienced terror due to the explosions he caused. But this was the first time he had felt that same terror.

The sudden rumble made Marlene's heart skip a beat. The otter had been enjoying of a peaceful day. She had been planning on maybe going to the penguins' for a visit later. Her eyes opened wide upon seeing the explosion that was taking place in the neighboring habitat.

Her first thought: Skipper had forbidden Rico explosions for a week. But that didn't matter. An explosion had occurred just now.

Who had it been? Rico? Or maybe... Kowalski?

Living so near to the penguins, she had witnessed a good number of explosions during her life. But this one... this one was the largest and more catastrophic she had ever seen. It hadn't been simply used to free the head of an ostrich from a concrete floor. Something had gone terribly wrong at the boys' HQ.

Rico arrived at what was left of the HQ seconds after his teammates did. He watched through the railing the destroyed habitat. The shock wave had emptied the water from the pool, and now it was soaking every habitat in the zoo. A portion of the railing had had gone flying and had landed in one of them. There were cracks on the floor of the pool and the fake ice floe had been reduced to nothing more than rubble, leaving its inside exposed. But the destruction was such that no one would have guessed there had once been a secret HQ.

Rico knew that if he wanted to see more he had to venture further into the destroyed HQ.

He jumped the railing, although he could have crossed through the hole, and landed inside. Skipper and Private were removing rubble desperately, there was authentic fear in their eyes.

"Search for him, Private! Search for him!" Skipper ordered frantically. He lifted up a bigger piece of rubble than what Rico would have thought he was able to carry and threw it aside.

"Aye, Skippah!" Private replied, his eyes welled with tears. Rico decided to join up in their search before the zoo staff showed up.

Only a few minutes after starting their search, they heard a weak wail that put them in the right direction to find their friend.

Skipper didn't like at all how that wail had sounded. But they finally found the scientist lying partially buried under a pile of rubble. His state was pitiful.

Private let out a cry upon seeing his friend's carbonized body. Rico would have tried to comfort the younger penguin, but he was in shock, also looking at Kowalski. The tall penguin let out another dying wail and, apparently with a lot of effort and pain, he raised a flipper in direction of his friends that had finally come to his rescue.

"H... He-help..." he begged. His voice was completely different from what the boys remembered. Hoarse and dry. Skipper took his eyes off the dying penguin and turned to look at Rico seeking for... help? _It was stupid!_ Why ask for help to an insane explosions lover? He was the one who had caused all this. It was for him that Kowalski was going to die.

"W-what do I do, Rico?" The captain asked weakly.

Rico soon found out the reason why Skipper had asked him for help. Private was in a corner, crying his eyes out. He was of no use right now. Before they could decide what to do to help Kowalski, they heard human voices.

"What the hell happened here?!" That was Alice.

"I told you the terrorists would attack!" And that was Maurice; the zoo employee, not the Aye-aye lemur. "It looks like it was at the penguins' habitat!"

Skipper turned to look at the place the voices were coming, he then turned to his badly injured soldier begging for help. He couldn't do anything to help him. The zoo's medic probably could. For this one time, he'd leave it in somebody else's hands.

"Retreat, boys!" Skipper ordered silently.

"No, Kowalski!" Private screamed, unwilling to leave his friend's side. Rico literally had to drag him away from there.

The three penguins then lied down on one of the many places that had been soaked by the water, pretending they had also been thrown out of the habitat by the shock wave. Maurice, the zookeeper, noticed them and hurried up to lift them up.

"What a relief, the penguins are safe," Maurice sighed once the birds were in his hands.

"Don't you know how to count, idiot?! You're missing one!" Alice snorted grumpily. She jumped to the inside of the habitat and landed on the pool's floor. She quickly started scanning the area in search of the missing penguin.

The bird's moans were even audible to the human ear so it didn't take Alice long to find him.

"Oh, my god!" She shouted horrified at the sight. She quickly looked away from the penguin in disgust. "I knew those penguins were up to something."

"C'mon, Alice. I doubt they had anything to do with this."

"Shut up and bring me some paper to wrap up the dead penguin."

"Look! It's alive!"

"It is?"

Alice didn't care, but she effectively noticed that the penguin was moving slightly and moaning.

"I don't care! It won't live much longer!" She spat, kneeling down to take the penguin. Skipper was ready to escape Maurice's grip and knock out the zookeeper.

"Stop right there, Alice!" Said someone else. All heads turned to see who it was. "As this zoo's veterinarian, I won't let an animal die until I've done everything in my hands to try to save it."

For the first time since he knew the man, Skipper felt gratitude towards the medic.

Alice only thought the medic's speech had been exaggerated and ridiculous, but she let the doctor take care of the dying penguin while she tried to figure out what had happened here. In the next few minutes, the medic was cradling the severely injured penguin in his arms and was taking him to the clinic, where he'd try to save his life.

Skipper watched his lieutenant's face. He had finally fallen unconscious. He had traveled to a world where pain couldn't reach him. Skipper could only hope he came back from there.

Rico didn't turn to look at Kowalski again. But he didn't need too. Kowalski's image -bleeding, with bubbling burn marks, patches of feathers missing from his body, pieces of metal embedded in his skin- was already burned in his mind.

_And you enjoyed it!_

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><p><strong>I don't usually update my stories so soon but... considering this story is already written in spanish and I only had to translate it and you guys were so awesome leaving me a few reviews... I decided you deserved chapter two right now! By the way, thanks for your kind reviews and to Skipper917 for beta-reading this!<strong>

**I hope you've liked the story so far and please Read&Review ;)**


	3. Fear

"_Fear grasped Central Park Zoo this afternoon, when a powerful explosion occurred in one of its exhibits: the penguins' habitat, to be exact, which is actually the most popular exhibit in the zoo. The explosion reached a four hundred feet radius and, literally, blew up the aforementioned habitat to pieces. It is believed to have been caused by a terrorist attack. Why a terrorist would want to plant a bomb in a zoo is currently unknown though. Fortunately, no casualties were reported from this assault. The damage report, on the other hand…_"

"Turn it off," the captain ordered drily. The younger soldier immediately pushed the red button in the remote control and the TV screen went black with a muffled click.

Rico blinked, not having realized he hadn't done it since the reporter had started talking. The explosion that had occurred in the zoo only a few hours ago was now all over the news.

He saw through the window they had entered Alice's office; some of the bigger animals were peering through it, also interested in knowing what the news said. Other smaller animals, such as Marlene and the lemurs, were standing on the zookeeper's desk. When Skipper ordered to turn off the TV, most of the animals started leaving, talking among them about the explosion. Not even the lemurs had noticed the absence of a fourth penguin in the team, since they had also retreated almost immediately. Or maybe it was that they didn't want to bother the team with intrusive questions right now.

Rico blinked again and sighed heavily. The last hours had been so surreal to him. He could barely believe they had taken place. Anyhow, they should already leave if they wanted to…

"Skipper" He turned to see in the otter's direction, who had called the unit's leader to stop him before he left. Skipper had already walked to the edge of the desk to jump out the window. Rico looked at Marlene again: she was hesitant whether to speak or not. "H-how is…?"

"Marlene," Skipper interrupted with a tired sigh, knowing perfectly well what she was about to ask. "Please, right now I'm not in the mood to… well, to listen to you, actually. Let's roll, boys."

After that, the three penguins left the office and hurried to their next destination.

They had no notion of how long they were standing at the door of the clinic before finding the courage to go into the room and face what was awaiting them in there. It had been a great relief to learn that Kowalski had survived to everything (the explosion, the injuries, the surgery) but they still had no guarantee that he would live and, after seeing what they had seen at the destroyed HQ, the condition he was couldn't be good. They finally took a step forward and climbed the bed.

From that moment on, Rico devoted himself to observe intensely the body of the penguin lying in the bed, but his attention was somewhere else.

Why did it have to be Kowalski?

The genius penguin had shown understanding to him; he had even tried to help him keep his pyromaniac impulses under control, disobeying Skipper's orders to do so. And this is how Rico had repaid him.

Why didn't he stop to think about the consequences? He had. He remembered perfectly having anticipated that Kowalski would get hurt. He wished he had listened to that weak voice of reason and reconsidered what he was doing. The memories that followed in his mind were of the minutes before the explosion. He had sought to get Skipper and Private out of the HQ before the explosion happened. He had cared about them.

Why hadn't he done the same for Kowalski?

It was an answer he didn't know at this moment.

He blinked a couple of times to return to reality; where Private was sobbing softly in Skipper's chest. The leader had allowed him to do so and he even laid a flipper on the young penguin's back to comfort him. Other than that, the captain's expression didn't show any emotion. Not a clue of what he was feeling in the inside. He just stared at his fallen soldier. Rico decided to do the same; but he really wanted to see this time, not only lay eyes on the penguin and get lost in his own thoughts.

The bloodstained bandages wrapped around most of his body to hide the many burns and stitches left in his feather-naked skin by the multiple surgeries he had undergo would make anyone want to turn around and get out of there. The number of machines –including a heart monitor measuring the penguin's feeble heart rate- he was hooked up to through tubes and cables stuck into his body, in addition to the oxygen mask the injured penguin had to breathe through, had made even Skipper nervous. But there was something else out of place that Rico couldn't identify yet. Some would think it would have been the first thing he had noticed, but it took him a few more minutes to realize what was wrong.

Kowalski's flipper. One of them was… shorter than the other. Amputated. Almost half of it was gone, maybe a little more. Rico's heart sank upon seeing this. But maybe that wouldn't be the worst of the damage caused by the explosion. There was still the possibility of Kowalski not surviving this. And besides that, his eyes were hidden under the bandages; they had been severely damaged and the doctor had said there was a high probability the penguin lost his eyesight permanently.

If Kowalski recovered from this, his life from now on would be that of a crippled penguin.

He had ruined his life.

"Rico, could you take Private with you?" Skipper's voice pulled him out of his trance and he was finally able to lift his gaze and fix it on his teammates. He got the impression that Skipper had been talking for a while.

Private's crying had soothed and he was now standing a distance from his leader, watching the mattress they were on just to avoid looking at Kowalski. Rico looked at him with pity and with guilt.

"Rico," Skipper called again gently, thinking his weapon expert perhaps hadn't heard him.

"_Okay,_" Rico replied with a soft grunt. He reached his flippers out to Private, expecting him to come to him. The kid glanced at the leader with a pleading look.

"Go with him," Skipper said simply. Private nodded meekly and walked over to Rico.

"_And you?_" Asked the penguin of the mohawk to Skipper once he and Private had come down from the bed. The captain was standing with his back to them now; his eyes still fixated on the lieutenant.

"I'll go in a moment. Now leave me alone. It's an order."

Rico nodded even though his leader couldn't see him and went to the exit with Private in tow. When he got out, he made sure to leave the door slightly ajar. By then, Private was already far ahead of him; the kid was walking with his head down and not noticing that no one was by his side. The weapon expert decided to stay behind for a little while and stood against the wall while he listened to the _conversation_ his leader was having.

Everything was silent for a whole minute; Skipper was hesitating to say anything. It felt ridiculous to be doing this. When his voice came out, it did it as a whisper.

"Stupid… Stupid Kowalski" His voice sounded broken at first, as if it had been stuck in his throat all this time. "You finally did it."

Rico could hardly believe it. It was bad enough to know it was his fault this had happened, but knowing that Kowalski was being blamed for it…

"I always knew something in your lab would blow up and would _kill_ you. I just never realized that meant you would _die._"

There was a little pause in which Rico stopped holding his breath.

"I should have worried more about instilling discipline in you rather than Rico. You've always been undisciplined, insubordinate. You didn't know how to live without experiments, nor science. You did this to yourself."

Rico finally chose to retreat. He didn't want to hear one more word.

Since their habitat had been completely destroyed, the zookeepers had moved the penguins to a temporary habitat while they finished the reconstruction of the other. It was located in the reptiles' exhibit; one of the many empty spaces had been acclimatized with an ice floor and a few snow mountains drawn on the walls. The penguins had as much trouble to get in and out from this new habitat as with the previous one. There was an air vent that allowed them to come and go as they wished.

That night, Skipper returned late to the habitat; only Rico knew what he had been doing. When Skipper came back, he told his recruits he had something very serious he wanted to tell them. Rico froze. Had Skipper found out that the explosion in the lab hadn't been an accident? He started to think he should confess.

_DON'T you dare!_

Skipper asked them to take a seat. Private did so; the kid looked like he didn't have enough energy left to stand on his feet, but Rico decided to decline the offer and keep standing. Skipper didn't consider it important.

"Boys," he began gently. "I'm not pretending to be the optimist in all this. So I'm just gonna say it. And by saying this, I want you to know I only do it to prepare you."

"What's it about, Skippah?" Private asked.

"Soldiers, I'm afraid the Kowalski you've known till now has died today. If he lives after this, he'll never be the same. He won't be able to function as my second in command anymore, and much less take part in the missions. Therefore…"

"Wait a minute, Skipper," Private intervened. "What do you mean by "_if_ he lives"?"

Skipper stared blankly at his cadet. After thirty seconds of silence, Skipper walked towards the youngest one and took a seat at his side with a solemn expression on his face. He opened the beak slowly and started talking with a very soft and gentle voice.

"Private" But Private already knew what he wanted to say. He stood up instantly and ran to the air vent.

"No! I won't give up that easy!" He cried out firmly; seconds later, he was outside the habitat. Skipper only heaved a sigh, but he had already expected that reaction from young and innocent Private.

Rico knew perfectly where Private had gone to unburden himself of his woes. He found the little one standing on Kowalski's bed, beside the injured penguin; his shoulders were trembling repeatedly but it still seemed like he was trying to hold his crying. Rico watched carefully, but he didn't want to barge in and he just stayed hidden in the shadows to listen.

"I'm sorry," the little penguin cried. Rico felt a strong pain in the chest and a lump formed in his throat. How many more were going to blame themselves for what had happened to Kowalski? "I didn't invite you to go for a snow cone. If I had, none of this would have happened. I didn't want to invite you. I knew you'd yell at me for interrupting you, so I thought: what do I invite him for? He's gonna say no anyway. I was too selfish…"

By the time Rico considered he had heard enough, Private was crying hysterically on Kowalski's pillow.

Days later, it was Skipper the one at the scientist's side. He thought he was alone, but in fact Rico was once again eavesdropping from a safe place.

The leader was holding a bouquet of flowers on his flippers and was trying to form a smile, but he still looked plain sad.

"I brought you flowers," the captain said, leaving the flowers on the foot of the bed with delicacy, as if he was touching fragile glass. "It's… what you're supposed to bring when a friend is at the hospital, right? I know you don't like them in particular. Neither do I. You've always called them insect nests. And they're not very manly either. But I didn't know what else to bring."

A frustrated sigh was the next thing that came out of the distressed leader's beak.

"What do you like, Kowalski? I have no idea. Science? How can I give you science? Science was what left you like this in the first place. I never worried about knowing you better, or any of the boys for that matter. I feel like I don't know my own men… I wanna change that."

He kept silence for a while that extended as an eternity for Rico.

"Things are going great with the team. Without you…. Rico's almost gone the week without explosives; he's been able to behave himself. You were right, Kowalski. This has really taught him some discipline."

Rico felt his leader's words take his heart and crush it painfully. It took all his might to not bent over and cry out. The pain he was feeling was worst than any physical pain.

Skipper had kept quiet for a few minutes again.

"I'm scared, Kowalski," Skipper confessed in a weak voice. "Yes, _I_ am scared. What if I'm right and you don't survive to this? What are we going to do then? It doesn't matter how well things are going now. We may be able to manage in missions without your help… without options, without inventions, without experiments. But never without _you_. Please, don't go, soldier. We can live without a scientist and an options guy, but not without _our _Kowalski.

After that, Skipper's voice came as a distant murmur to Rico's ears. He couldn't hear it anymore; something was burning on his cheek and had distracted him. He lifted a flipper and touched the cheek that burned: a single teardrop had rolled from his eye. He dried it with a quick movement and left the clinic.

The sinister voice… It had kept strangely quiet until now, but only cause pain made it sleep. Rico could feel it becoming stronger little by little. He wasn't strong enough to stop it. His previous actions had only fed the voice. Now there was no way he could escape its grip.

Now he knew the answer.

He had not only become addicted to explosions, but also to hurting others. That time when he blew up the car and everyone had resulted unharmed; he remembered there was something that didn't feel quite alright; he wanted someone to get hurt. When he destroyed Julien's throne; he wanted to hurt the ringtail. And the explosion in Kowalski's lab; he hadn't tried to get the scientist away from there because he didn't want him to be safe from the explosion.

He wanted nothing more than to hurt others with his explosions. Cause them harm and pain and enjoy their suffering.

He had crossed the barrier between madness and sadism. And there was no turning point after that.

He had made a terrible mistake and he couldn't fix it.

He was also scared. Scared of himself and what he'd do next.


	4. Chaos

It had taken Rico's brain less than two hours to plan his next move. It had been easier this time; the pain had slowly died down, making way for the sinister voice. His week without explosives was officially over, Skipper had given him back complete access to the dynamite and the bombs that were stored in one of their tunnels and gave him an empty congratulations. Rico had survived the week; Kowalski, in the other hand...

He was still struggling with increasingly less force on a clinic's bed.

_They should be thankful. Especially Skipper; he is the one you should have caught in that explosion. Now, take the explosives! Make the biggest explosion ever!_

Rico didn't do anything with the explosives the first days. He let the fury of the voice increase. He had something far bigger in store. The last explosion. But for that he had to let the voice's desperation rise. Then, not even he, no matter how hard he tried, would be able to stop it if he tried to back down in the middle of the move.

The bombs were kept safe inside his stomach. Just waiting for the right moment to be detonated.

One day before doing his move, he visited Kowalski's room. Everything was the same in there; time simply hadn't passed inside that room. The true reason he had come here in the first place was because he wanted to know if seeing his friend in this condition discouraged him of what he was about to do.

But no. He had already done the worst of the worst. He had hurt one of his loved ones with one of his beloved explosions. After that, any other evil thing he could do seemed insignificant.

He said his goodbye to Kowalski with a salute and then ran out to do the preparations.

There'd be fireworks tonight.

Rico wasn't planning on taking his friends' lives. He'd never dare to think something like that after what happened with Kowalski. He still had some self-control left and he was going to use it to keep his friends safe from himself.

He came back to his temporary habitat before nightfall that day. It wasn't a comfortable place for their needs, but Skipper had gotten them three blankets with which they spent their nights. When he came out of the air vent, he could see his captain watching Private while he slept. He couldn't help stare at his two remaining friends for a few moments, but then he shook his head and walked slowly to the blanket that'd be his bed tonight. He moved with heaviness and silently to not alert his leader of his presence, but he failed.

"Look, Rico," Skipper said, not taking his eyes off the sleeping Private. "He's finally sleeping peacefully. I thought he'd never do it again after Kowalski's accident."

Rico looked down and he just nodded in silence. He really wanted to go to sleep now, without exchanging a word with none of those penguins. He was about to lie down on the blanket when the leader turned around to face him. Something had changed in Skipper in these last days. That something no one could put a name on, but that no doubt revealed its absence in his eyes. The captain had said that the Kowalski they'd known till now had died, but he forgot to mention that the old Skipper had gone with him.

"Rico, I think I've been avoiding a chat that's necessary that you and I have."

The mohawked penguin's stomach tossed. He didn't know what to expect at this point. But he forced himself to straighten his back and face his leader that looked at him with seriousness.

"I know the events are still fresh but I'm not one to beat around the bush. I want to promote you to lieutenant, Rico."

Rico didn't react well to what Skipper said. The captain imagined it had been too soon to give him the news; he might just need time to put his thought together and get use to the idea. When he told him he was going to promote him to lieutenant, Rico snorted and turned away, he didn't want to listen to anything else Skipper had to say. The flat headed penguin tried to get his weapon expert's attention back, but Rico simply wouldn't listen to him anymore. He took his blanket and went to sleep in the farthest part of the habitat.

Skipper had no intentions of replacing Kowalski; he'd be there for anything the tall penguin needed, and he knew that (if Kowalski survived) he was going to need him more than ever. It's just that, as the captain, it was his job to make the hardest decisions without regarding his feelings.

At the end, he decided to follow the example of his recruits and go to sleep, leaving this matter unresolved for tonight. Tomorrow would be a new day.

A few minutes after the captain went to sleep, Rico opened his eyes. He was really good pretending he was asleep when he wanted; that performance had helped him a lot in different situations before, and now he had used it for the last time. He rose from the place he had been "sleeping" and got out of the habitat through the air vent. The zoo was dark, a perfect cover that would hide the execution of his plan.

_The table is set, now you just have to serve the main entry._

Rico was in the clocktower, contemplating the zoo. The hands of the clock made their way slowly to twelve o'clock. Once it was time, he would press down the detonator and it'd be the first round of the night. The hands of the clock made it to the number twelve and the penguin took a deep breath, perfectly conscious of what he was about to do. It was curious how the power of the sinister voice that lived in his head worked. He had barely doubted the moment he put that bomb inside the machine Kowalski was building; and now he was taking more time in deciding if he should do this, when not even half of the zoo animals were his friends.

His doubts didn't last long, seconds after twelve am, his flippers pressed down the lever of the detonator. Right then, a series of bombs blew up around the zoo. He watched how the chaos slowly emerged, and that had only been the first round. There were a lot more where that came from.

Skipper woke up abruptly as soon as the first bomb blew up. The ground shook underneath him and even some small rubble fell from the roof due to the force the building was shaking. He felt his heart stop for a second; the tremor produced by the explosions lasted several seconds. He saw Private waking up too, obviously the young penguin wasn't expecting to be awoken in the middle of the night by what seemed to be an earthquake. It took Private a while to register what was happening and Skipper saw when he started to panic.

"S-Skippah!" Private screamed, reaching out his flippers towards him. The captain answered his call and ran to the young penguin to hold him protectively. They stayed there, hoping the building wouldn't fall off, until finally the tremors ceased. Skipper let go of Private and, for the first time, he became aware of Rico's absence.

"Hurry, Private, we have to go outside."

The two penguins slid down the air vent to the outside. When they got out, they found themselves surrounded by a thick curtain of smoke that barely let them breathe or see anything. Skipper soon realized they had to split up.

"Private, go to the clinic, and if you see the building is in danger of falling over, put Kowalski to safety. I'll go look for Rico and whoever that caused those explosions."

Private followed orders and both penguins went their separate ways. Not long after, the second round of explosions went off.

"We're under attack! Take cover!" Skipper shouted while running through the zoo halls, trying to warn the animals and save as many lives as possible while avoiding being caught in the blasts that occurred under his feet.

The second round lasted almost a full minute, pure terror for the zoo animals. Skipper was panting, hiding behind a wall. He only hoped Private, Rico and Kowalski were alright. When he noticed the explosions had stopped, he poked his head over the side of the wall and took a quick look around the zoo. The destruction was devastating, but what really caught his attention was the figure of an animal standing on top of the clock tower. He immediately identified him as the author of the chaos that was taking place. He had to stop him right now.

He slid expertly as close as he could to the tower without being seen, but he still couldn't see clearly who the animal that was up there was. Aiming carefully for the animal, he lifted a stone from the floor and threw it with perfect aim in the direction of the animal. The projectile hit its target right in the head, but before he knew what hit him, the animal fell from the tower directly to the ground.

Skipper grinned and he quickly slid to the place the animal had fallen, nonetheless, when he arrived there, the animal had already stood up and taken off. The captain could see the detonator still in his paws/hands/wings or whatever that animal had. He cursed under his breath and went after the enemy at full speed.

"WHO ARE YOU?" As he expected, he got no answer nor did the animal slowed down. When he turned into a corner, he lost sight of the enemy. He cursed once more before seeing from the corner of his eye another animal running towards him. It was only Private.

"There were more explosions," Private commented as if Skipper hadn't noticed already. "Did you find Rico?"

"No. But I found the one who's causing the explosions. I chased him all the way here and then I lost sight of him; he's carrying a detonator so there could be more explosions at anytime. Stay alert."

Private nodded and saluted.

"How was everything at the clinic?" Skipper asked, still worried about his other two soldiers.

"The clinic is intact, sir. I could say it's the only safe place in the whole zoo right now. Kowalski's sleeping like a baby."

Skipper sighed with relief.

"What a stroke of luck. But now we need to find Rico and the enemy and safeguard the rest of the animals. Tell them they'll be fine as long as they stay near the clinic."

"Yes, sir."

Once again each one went on their own.

Skipper walked through the zoo halls, alert to every movement he could detect. A few moments later, he finally saw again the animal he had seen at the clock tower not long before. He didn't give him any time to react; he just ran straight to him and knocked him down. They both ended up on the ground; the unidentified animal let go of the detonator and it rolled several feet away. The pair struggled until Skipper managed to impose his strength over the other animal. This latter was immobilized and the captain could see his face.

It was Rico.

Time wasn't enough to the flat-headed penguin to understand what was happening: why Rico was holding a detonator and why he had caused all these explosions. The weapons expert pushed him off and jumped over the wall of the otter's habitat. Skipper was left in shock momentarily, but he quickly regained control over himself and went after the maniac.

"RICO! WHY?!" He shouted when he jumped over the wall and landed inside Marlene's habitat. He found the weapon expert standing near the otter's cave, unmoving, but looking straight back at him. It unsettled Skipper a little when he noticed that, on his shoulder, the penguin was carrying an unconscious Marlene.

Both Skipper and Rico stayed like that, only staring at each other while the pieces slowly fell into place inside Skipper's head.

"You caused the explosions," Skipper realized; his voice was only a shaking whisper. He didn't want to believe what he was thinking. "Not only these, but also the one in Kowalski's lab, isn't that right?"

Rico gave no answer, but Skipper knew his guess was right.

"How could you? Why did you do it, Rico?"

Rico dropped his head, still holding Marlene strongly against his shoulder.

"Do you realize what you did to Kowalski? You almost kill your own teammate just because you can't live without explosions! And in the name of pickled sardines, what are you going to do with Marlene?!

"_She… come… with me_," Rico said in a hollow voice. His cold stare really frightened Skipper. He was in front of the same soldier that had been driven mad the second he was forbidden the explosives and had sent a whole zoo into a total chaos because of it.

Kowalski was going to die and it was Rico's fault. Skipper had raised the soldier himself but it was only now that he realized that he had made a mistake in the process.

"I won't let you take anybody else's life, Rico! As your commanding officer, I will stop you! I don't think I have to remind you that I'm capable of taking out one of my own men if necessary."

_Just let him try. _

The sinister voice made its first appearance since Rico had started the explosions, which could only mean he had not much time left. Skipper had interfered in his plans and now his actions wouldn't culminate with the poetic ending he had planned. He wouldn't take the whole zoo with him but at least the otter would die today. He didn't know why he had chosen her, perhaps just out of pure spontaneousness.

Maybe it was better this way. In the proximity, he could hear the sirens approaching through the streets of New York to deal with the commotion in Central Park Zoo.

He had to make his exit now.

Securing the otter over his shoulder, he took off towards the nearest wall. As soon as he jumped it, he'd be outside the zoo. He heard his leader calling after him.

"Rico, stop!"

He wasn't going to follow Skipper's orders anymore, never again, not even for one last time. He gained momentum and took a big leap. He landed on top of the wall, where his feet barely touched the surface before he jumped out of the zoo. In less than a minute, he had left the captain several feet behind.

Skipper trembled in place, he had realized a lot of things in a couple of minutes and it was too much information to absorb. Despite Rico was already too far by then, the Skipper took a big breath to call out to him once more.

"RI…!"

"Skippah!" He turned around. He had instantly recognized that voice and, as a matter of fact, just as he expected, Private was coming up to him. "Did you find Rico? Or did you at least catch the one who's causing the explosions?"

Skipper opened his beak to tell him he had discovered that Rico was the culprit, not only the ones that had just happened, but also the one that caused Kowalski to be on the brink of death. Nonetheless, something made him stop at the last second. Something inside him refused to shatter the image the kid had of the explosion loving penguin. Rico was one of Private's heroes, he couldn't take that away from the child.

"It was Blowhole," Skipper said; the dolphin was the first one that popped up in his head when he thought about the enemies he had. A shocked expression appeared on Private's face; now it was time to make up what had happened to Rico. "He managed to escape. And he kidnapped Rico and Marlene."

"WHAT?!" Skipper hastened to put a wing on the private's chest to calm him down.

"I'll go after them to save them. I won't let Rico swim alone through this."

"I'll go too! I wanna help."

"NO!" He had to make an excuse to stop Private from coming and discovering his lies. "Remember the penguin creed: never swim alone. Stay at Kowalski's side and take care of him. And I'll take care of Rico."

Although with doubts and mistrust, Private complied and Skipper started to leave.

"And don't worry," Skipper told him. "I'll bring Rico back."

He said that hoping for the best. Who knows, maybe, in the end, he would be able to find a solution, he would help Rico and he would keep his word. Once he left the zoo, he promised himself he would do everything in his power to get the Rico he had known back.

* * *

><p><strong>I really meant to update this sooner, but I kept postponing it and forgetting it... anyway, I'm sure you don't want excuses so I'll stop writing stuff now. By the way, it'd be nice if you guys left a review if you actually read and liked the story. You may or may not know but reviews make a fanfiction author the happiest person in the world! Please bring out the happiness!<strong>

**This is the climax of the story; I should've told you that in the last chapter but never mind that now! The thrilling (not so much) conclusion to _The Explosion Inside Rico's Head _in the next chapter! The Last One!**

**I'd like to thank, as always, Skipper917 for beta-reading this :) **


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